John Gilhooley

While there's plenty to be happy about with this year's Ink-n-Iron lineup at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, the Weekly recently learned that another one of the ship's major festivals slated for spring has sunk. Last Thursday, Punk Rock Picnic was cancelled until further notice. The two-day festival, which already suffered the loss of it's previous headliners, Danzig and Gwar, was scheduled to feature over 60 bands on April 13th and 14th on the iconic Long Beach vessel. Now it appears that the future of the entire event is going down in flames due to a scheduling conflict with the city of Long Beach and an amateur event promoter who got in way over his head.

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Brian Erzen / OC Weekly

Sonar On Tour at the Shrine Auditorium

Sonar On Tour
Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall
November 10, 2012

To test its international appeal, Sonar, one of the worlds most prestigious electronic music festival promoters debuted its brand in North America with a highly-anticipated tour. On Saturday November 10th, the last stop on this eight-city excursion landed at the Shrine Auditorium with the help of Goldenvoice concert promoters and drew and eclectic mix of house heads and mostly rap enthusiasts ready to see Die Antwoord live. Starting early at 8 p.m., Sonar On Tour showcased an interesting array of artists including Paul Kalkbrenner, Seth Troxler, Nic Fanciulli and AZARI & III but failed to capitalize on the Sonar brand usually known for it's avant-garde artists and exceptional festival production.

Though we can't speak for the other stops, the Shrine LA show failed to give Angelinos a real taste of the Barcelona festival which has been a major part of the electronic music culture for almost 20 years. As you drove up to the parking lot of the Shrine which charged a whooping $20, there were noticeably a large number of spots open even when we arrived a little past 9pm. This venue which typically inspires lines around the corner for other events such as HARD Halloween in the past and Insomniac's Above & Beyond show a couple months back bared no resemblance of a festival of this caliber with little Sonar signage and most importantly little attendees. With the HARD brand hosting a show for Wolfgang Gartner at the Palladium in Hollywood down the street and the slew of other electronic shows over the the past months we can see why this event was passed up on many EDM fans radar.

See Also:
*Sonar Festival Brings EDM Insanity From Spain to the States
*Five Things You're Not Allowed to Miss at HARD Day of the Dead
*Damian Lazarus Plays Music For 24-Hour Party People...Literally

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Flikr user Ceasar Sebastian.

Monster Massive 2008

Hey kids! What are you doing this weekend? Monster Massive? If you haven't been on the Internet in last 12 hours or so you should probably Google their website and guess again. Last night, the event hosted by rave promoter Go Ventures announced that it had been cancelled.

Stop us if you've heard this one before...
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TriTone Facebook page

How different things could have been for the TriTone Latin Music and Arts Festival this weekend. The weather complied, providing overcast and cool temperatures for those assembled on the grounds of Prado Regional Park in Chino. Unfortunately, just about everything else didn't! Instead of boasting in the wake of a watershed moment for the Latin Alternative scene in Southern California, BRC Entertainment, as festival organizers, took to their Facebook page to whine about the event gone awry. "The organizers wanted to give us "The Latin Rock Scene" something no one has ever tried and the first thing we do is throw dirt at it," they wrote to the throngs of mostly angry rockeros wanting their money back.
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Matt Oliver / OC Weekly

The Typical "EDM Fans"

With EDM garnering so much spotlight in the music world lately, plenty of media outlets, businesses conglomerates and showbiz types have turned to EDM as if it just came out of nowhere. Popping up all over the US through music festivals, YouTube sensations, blogs and sold out amphitheaters, it's understandable why everyone (including us) seems to be vying to capture a piece of this audience nowadays. However, whenever you have an influx of reporters, bloggers, TV anchors and social media whores delivering content about the genre, there are always going to be a few attempts that really make us cringe. Whether its an out-of-touch news anchor, or a hipster blog that's long on party pics and short on content, there are some outlets that any EDM lover worth their kandi bracelets should avoid like the plague. For that reason, we've put together a quick list of the top five worst places to get your EDM news.

See Also:
*Zedd Tells Us Why He Dislikes the Phrase "EDM"
*Nocturnal Wonderland: Our Recap From A to Z
*[Updated] Top Five Codes of Conduct For Opening DJs at EDM Shows

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By now we've all pretty much come to know what to expect out of the annual MTV Video Music Awards show. Picture the drunkest moments of your high school prom, add a shit ton of today's hottest music acts, drizzle in some dueling red carpet looks and a couple gallons of spray tan, multiply that by 20,000 commercial breaks and bam! You've pretty much got the whole show. 
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Jessie J

Though her hit song "Domino" came out over a year ago, Jessie J might be looking at a serious price tag for the song due to some claims that she ripped off a few chords and melodies to make it.

Musician Will Loomis, frontman of Santa Barbara band Loomis and the Lust, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the UK pop star this week, seeking damages from the artist and her labels (Universal Music Group, Lava Records, Universal Republic Records) over the song, which he says is almost identical to one of his tunes. The claim is that she knowingly infringed on elements of Loomis' song "Bright Red Chords," written in 2008, which appeared on the band's 2009 album Nagasha. Loomis says he'd caught wind of Jessie J's song, which shares the exact same four punchy guitar chords, after a fan from Albany, New York brought it to his attention.

"A fan of ours, who I'd never met, had bought our CD out of a bargain bin at a local record store," Loomis told the Weekly over the phone. "A couple months later, he wrote me an email basically saying 'I just wanted to let you know that you're being ripped off by an artist in the U.K.'" After hearing Jessie J's song and sharing it with friends, Loomis decided he had a case. Listening to the two jams side by side, it's hard to argue that the structure, though very basic, is pretty much exactly the same right down to the phrasing of the verses.


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Matt Oliver / OC Weekly

EDC raver girls

See also:

*EDC Vegas Pulls the Plug on Music Due to High Winds

*Kaskade Talks EDC, Freaks of Nature Tour and Partying at Focus Tuesdays in OC

*Electric Daisy Carnival: More From Day One [Photos]

Last night, it seemed like day two of Electric Daisy Carnival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway had the potential to be just as magical as the first. Besides the awful traffic to get to the festival from the Las Vegas Blvd Strip, everything was going just as planned until we started to notice it was more windy than usual. Then, a lot more windy than usual. Then, ridiculously windy.

Halfway through Markus Schulz' bass-rattling set at ASOT tent the speakers started swinging around as fast and hard as the music, nearly falling off of their mounts. Around 12:30 a.m., organizers had to stop the music as Armin Van Buuren got on the the big LED screen and informed everyone that we were to evacuate the tent because it was beginning to get dangerous. He said it would only be temporary until officials felt it was safe enough for us to keep the party going. As thousands left the stage we noticed the bassPOD stage was still open and as we made our way over they Insomniac announced that everyone was to make their way to the bleachers away from the large stages which posted a potential threat to our safety.

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​Among all the screeching and wobbling of dubstep, the newest music sensation in America, there are dances that go with all the noisy bass drops. Some find it annoying to watch while others think it's an extreme talent. I find these godawful. See what you think of these five ludicrous dubstep dances after the jump. More »

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If you haven't seen Lady Gaga's latest video, "You and I", in which she transforms to look like a dude, then you were probably confused by last night's opening of the VMAs. Yes, Lady Gaga can play a convincing roughed-up guy, but her chameleon skills aren't easy to come by. It doesn't matter how many stylists you have, how many producers work for you, or how much dough the record label throws your way, because ultimately if you don't have the chops don't bother changing your look (it won't help). With out a doubt real iconic artists, like Lady Gaga, Madonna, and David Bowie, have the talent to pull off different styles and branch out to different genres. Some pay off and some definitely don't.

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